Women Who Lead, Do, and Change: Kayla Underkoffler

Kayla is a Lead Security Engineer at Zenity, where she helps define the future of secure, responsible AI agent technology. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, she brings discipline, resilience, and a fresh perspective to every challenge. After earning her degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Cybersecurity, she built her career through hands-on experience in technical roles, internships, and community engagement.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and your current role.

I graduated from high school on a Saturday and left for United States Marine Corps bootcamp the very next day. That experience laid the foundation for the rest of my career. After serving four years with the Quantico Marine Corps Band, I left active duty to pursue higher education. During my time at university, I reassessed my career path and ultimately earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems with a minor in Cybersecurity.

While studying, I completed several internships that gave me a clearer picture of real-world opportunities in cybersecurity. These experiences not only shaped my understanding of the field but also helped me discover where my interests truly aligned.

The roles I’ve held since graduation have solidified my path as a cybersecurity professional, and it’s one that I’ve stayed committed to and feel fortunate to keep building upon.

Currently, I serve as a Lead Security Engineer in the CTO Office at Zenity, a company focused on AI Agent Security. I have the unique privilege of working on the front lines of defining what secure agentic AI looks like from the ground up. My role includes collaborating with policymakers and standards bodies to expand the scope of AI agent coverage through regulation, policy, and standards. I'm also actively involved in community initiatives and organisations that develop actionable, practical guidance that help companies invest in agentic AI responsibly and securely.

Biggest win, biggest lesson

I’m most proud of the decision I made during undergrad to switch from a Business Management degree to Management Information Systems.

Making that switch was terrifying. While I had been a confident end user of technology, both in my youth and during my time in the Marine Corps, I never considered myself innately technical. Growing up, I leaned more toward the artistic side. So stepping into a technical field felt incredibly intimidating.

But that leap taught me something invaluable: anyone is capable of learning, and more importantly, succeeding, at something new if they’re willing to commit. I quickly learned that showing up was half the battle. If I went to class, stayed engaged during lectures, and took my coursework seriously, I was already ahead of the curve.

That lesson has repeated itself throughout my career. So if there’s one takeaway I’d share, it’s this: don’t be afraid to make the leap. If you’re dedicated to learning, you’ll succeed. You’re not as far behind as you think, you just have to start.

Have you faced any career challenges?

When the generative AI revolution kicked off, I was very much anti-AI. In my opinion, one of the hardest parts of working in cybersecurity is the constant pressure to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies. We don’t just have to understand how these technologies work, we also have to understand their vulnerabilities and potential for misuse so we can defend against them. It’s a lot to stay on top of, and frankly, I was feeling burned out.

So when AI started gaining serious momentum, I resisted. I didn’t want to dive into yet another emerging technology. But as fate would have it, my next career move brought me to a company that’s fully focused on AI agent security. Suddenly, I found myself in the thick of the very thing I had been avoiding.

That role became a turning point. It gave me the motivation (and the push) I needed to confront my hesitation and fully engage with a technology I had been resisting. I’m not suggesting every new tech wave requires a career shift, but sometimes, fresh challenges and a new environment are exactly what we need to reignite our curiosity and stay sharp in this field.

Where do you still see gaps or barriers for women in digital, and what one action would accelerate change?

Women remain underrepresented in technical fields like engineering and cybersecurity. But I believe AI has the potential to be a powerful accelerator for change.

To truly make AI perform well, you need a combination of technical understanding, creative thinking, and strong communication skills. That blend plays to many strengths women already bring to the table. If we can take the leap and learn how to harness AI, both as a tool for learning and as a way to amplify our capabilities, we can unlock new levels of participation and impact in technical spaces.

This is also a unique moment in time. AI is still a new chapter in the tech world, and that means there’s room for fresh voices to help shape what comes next. So why not us? Why not the Digital Women out there? We can be the change if we choose to dive in and lead.

If you had five minutes with a woman who is just starting her digital career, what would you tell her to focus on first?

Focus on AI. Learn how to harness its capabilities to make yourself more effective, efficient, and valuable.

How? Start by getting comfortable capturing your raw ideas: just get your thoughts down on paper. Then, organise them into a rough outline. From there, develop your skills in prompt engineering and collaborating with AI tools. Let your creativity, unique perspective, and lived experiences shape the content, but lean on AI to help with structure, clarity, and polish.

Mastering this process of quickly turning ideas into impactful output will dramatically increase your productivity and confidence. It’s a force multiplier at any point in your career.

What do you think companies can do to support career progress for women working in digital roles

I’ve always been a strong advocate for technical internships (especially at the professional level) and rotational programmes. These short-term, hands-on experiences give employees the opportunity to build real technical skills in meaningful, tangible ways.

When companies offer this kind of exposure to women already within the organisation, they’re not just providing training, they’re making a long-term investment in talent development. Giving women the space to explore and grow technical expertise not only boosts confidence and capability but also makes them invaluable contributors to the company’s success over time.

What three digital tools or platforms could you not run your work without?

• LinkedIn - LinkedIn is how I stay connected with the broader professional community. It’s my go-to platform for learning from others in the field, staying current on industry trends, and sharing work I’m passionate about. It also gives me a space to engage in meaningful conversations on topics that are relevant to my role and to cybersecurity as a whole.
• A Professional/Social Chat Interface - After working at several companies where Slack was integral to the day-to-day, it’s become my preferred chat tool. That said, the specific platform isn’t as important as having a fast, reliable communication channel. As a remote employee, this kind of interface is essential. The quick messages and drive-by-chats replace the casual coffee and hallway conversations you'd have in an office, and helps me stay connected, aligned, and energised at work.
• ChatGPT -ChatGPT (and similar generative AI tools) has become a daily staple. It’s a major efficiency booster, helping me ramp up on new topics quickly and structure my thinking with greater clarity. It also enables me to produce consistent, high-quality content by turning raw ideas into refined output. In short, it helps me work smarter and faster.

In the next 12 months, which emerging trend or shift should our community keep on their radar?

I recommend that women in the digital space keep an eye on Vibe Coding. It’s still a nascent technology, and there are important considerations around security, governance, and maturity, but the potential is already shining through.

How many times have we come up with a brilliant idea for a new tool, product, or app, only to let it pass because we didn’t have the technical skills to build it ourselves, or the network or resources to find someone who could? Those barriers are beginning to dissolve. Vibe Coding is ushering in a new era where you can start bringing your ideas to life through intuitive, creative, AI-assisted development, without needing to be a full-stack engineer.

As a security professional, I wouldn’t recommend using these tools to build production-grade applications handling sensitive data just yet. But for early prototyping, ideation, and exploration? This is where the power lies. It opens the door for more women to move from idea to execution, and that’s a shift worth watching.